MONTANA. 



MORAVIANS. 



an annual rental of $78,662.83, have been issued, sis 

 against 527 leases and permits covering 175,558 

 acres, yielding $27,469 annual rental, this being 

 the total number issued for the six preceding years. 

 The cash receipts of the office for the past two 

 years show an increase of about 300 per cent, over 

 any like period in the history of this department. 

 The receipts for 1898 were: Land sales, $12,954.69; 

 timber sales, $15,123.96 ; leases and permits, $66,- 

 9478,")- trespass, prepaid and back rentals, interest 

 on deferred payments, $31.807.21 ; total, $126,- 

 833.71. Up to Nov. 30 a total of 404,779.07 acres of 

 school land had been leased, from which the rental 

 was $45.372.16. Of this amount of land under 

 lease, 245,452 acres were leased in 1898 and 159,547 

 in the previous six years. 



Aria Lands. Under an act of the last Legisla- 

 ture a commission consisting of J. K. Toole, C. O. 

 Reed, Donald Bradford, A. H. Mitchell, and T. C. 

 Marshall was appointed to provide for. the recla- 

 mation of arid lands. They have had surveys 

 made for three canals in the eastern part of the 

 State, which will render arable about 75,000 acres; 

 and contracts were let for the construction of two of 

 till-in. The refusal of the Northern Pacific com- 

 pany, which owns alternate sections of the land on 

 a large tract near Billings which the commission 

 wished to irrigate by a large canal, to assume any 

 part of the expense has hampered the operations in 

 Unit direction. 



The Capitol. The fifth Legislative Assembly 

 passed an act repealing the one passed by the 

 fourth Legislative Assembly for the construction of 

 a State Capitol building to cost $1,000,000 and pro- 

 vided for one at a cost not to exceed $300,000, and 

 for the taking up and payment of the outstanding 

 obligations of the former commission, amounting to 

 $40.000. A new commission was appointed, con- 

 sisting of Elizur Beach, D. E. Folsom, J. M. Fox, 

 A. D. Peck, and the Govenor. Bonds were issued 

 to the amount of $350,000 ; no purchaser was found 

 in 1897, but in 1898 they were all taken at par by 

 Thomas Cruse, of Montana. Plans were drawn 

 and the building contract was let for $289,821. It 

 is expected that the Capitol will be completed by 

 May, 1900. 



Political. The only State officers to be elected 

 this year were a Chief Justice and an Associate 

 Justice of the Supreme Court and a clerk of the 

 same court. A member of Congress was also 

 to be chosen. 



The Democrats, Populists, and Silver Republicans 

 met in separate conventions at Anaconda, Sept. 21. 

 The Governor, who has been a Populist since 1894, 

 and was a delegate to the convention of that party, 

 went over to the Democratic convention, where he 

 declared his intention to re-enter the Democratic 

 party. 



The Democrats nominated a straight party ticket 

 as follows: For Member of Congress, A.J.Camp- 

 bell ; Chief Justice, W. Y. Pemberton; Associate 

 Justice. W T. Pigott: Clerk, Henry G. Rickerts. 



The Populists and Silver Republicans united on 

 the following ticket : For Member of Congress, 

 Charles S. Hartman, Republican; Chief Justice, 

 Theodore M. Brantley ; Associate Justice, Henry C. 

 Smith, Republican ; Clerk, Oliver Holmes. Populist. 

 II. C. Smith declined the nomination, and J. M. 

 Clements was afterward made the candidate, while 

 T. S. Hogan was finally the candidate for Member 

 of Congress. 



The Republican convention met at Helena, Sept. 

 24, and named the following candidates: For Mem- 

 ber of Congress, Thomas C. Marshall ; Chief Justice, 

 Theodore M. Brantley; Associate Justice, George 

 H. Gruhb; Clerk, Benjamin Webster. 



At the election, Nov. 8, the Democrats carried all 



the State offices, except that of Chief Justice. Fol- 

 lowing is the official report : 



For Member of Congress A. J. Campbell, Demo- 

 crat, 23,351; Thomas C. Marshall. Republican, 14.- 

 829; Thomas S. Hogan, Silver Republican and 

 Populist, 11,607. 



Chief Justice Theodore M. Brantley, Republican, 

 Silver Republican, and Populist, 24,476; W. Y. 

 Pemberton, Democrat, 24,319. 



Associate Justice Pigott, Democrat, 24,305 ; 

 Grubb, Republican, 15,763; J. M. Clements, Popu- 

 list. 5,350. 



Clerk of the Supreme Court Henry G. Rickerts, 

 Democrat. 23.363 ; Benjamin Webster, Republican, 

 15.274 ; Oliver Holmes,' Populist, 8,697. 



The Legislature will stand : Senate 5 Republic- 

 ans, 18 Democrats, 1 Populist; House 13 Repub- 

 licans, 57 Democrats. 



Two proposed constitutional amendments wero 

 adopted. One related to the term of office of 

 county commissioners, and the other to the Supremo 

 Court, providing that in case any justice is dis- 

 qualified for any cause his colleagues may call in a 

 district judge to assist in a case before the court. 



MORAVIANS. The following is a summary of 

 the statistics of the Northern Province of the Mo 

 ravian Church in the United States for Dec. 31, 

 1897: Number of communicants, 11,661; of non- 

 communicants. 1,281; of children, 4,794; total 

 membership, 22,345 ; of members of Sunday schools, 

 15,466. The Southern Province returns 2,892 com- 

 municants, 228 non-communicants, 1,489 children, 

 making a total of 4,609 members, with 4,061 in Sun- 

 day schools ; giving for the whole American Prov- 

 ince 14,553 communicants, 1,509 non-communi- 

 cants, 6,283 children, and a total of 22,345, with 

 15,400 in Sunday schools. The numbers show in- 

 crease of 333 communicants, 109 non-communi- 

 cants, 21 children, 463 in the total, and 178 in Sunday 

 schools. The contributions of the Northern Prov- 

 ince for Church enterprises and general Christ iar 

 objects were : For retired ministers, $1,360; for the 

 Bohemian mission, $1,174 ; for foreign missions 

 $4,746 ; for the Alaska mission, $2,353 ; for home 

 missions, $7,219 ; for the Theological Seminary, 

 $2,972; for other Moravian causes, $1,322; for 

 general Christian objects, $2,228 ; making a total 

 of $23,374, and showing a decrease from the pre- 

 vious year of $4,204. The whole amount of con- 

 tributions for church support was $106,515, ot 

 $7,619 less than in 1896. In regard to the decrease 

 in contributions, attention is called to the facts that 

 special efforts had been made in the previous yeai 

 in behalf of several objects, and especially toward 

 the payment of the foreign-mission debt and a new 

 enterprise in Alberta; and several thousand dollars 

 had been raised for the erection of new buildings 

 and the liquidation of debts on church properly ; 

 so that benevolences were diverted rather than di- 

 minished. 



The provincial synod of the Northern American 

 Province met at Lititz, Pa., Sept. 7. Bishop J. M. 

 Levering was chosen president. The report of tlic 

 Provincial Elders' Conference showed that there 

 were now 83 ministers in active service in the prov- 

 ince, or 5 more than at the time the previous sync d 

 was convened. Of these 74 were pastors of congro- ', 

 gations and 9 were filling other offices. Twenty- 

 two brethren and sisters were engaged in mission 

 service in the United States under the superintend*! 

 ence of the provincial board. The membership 

 of the churches had increased to a gratifying extent 

 during the intersynodal period, being 11,661 <n 

 Jan. 1, 1898, against 10,160 on Jan. 1, 1893; while 

 the total number connected with the Church h;.d 

 risen from 15.915 in 1893 to 17,736 in 1898, the 

 Sunday schools had increased from 69 to 82, and the 



